


The Nothingness

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Green Arrow (Comics)
Genre: Adulthood, Burns, Gen, Going Solo, Growing Up, Moving Out, Oral Fixation, POV First Person, Painkillers, Post Cry For Justice, Seattle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15341169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: Mia Dearden discovers that entering adulthood isn't exactly easy.





	The Nothingness

**Author's Note:**

> I'm literally basing the whole "Mia has an oral fixation" thing off this one panel where she's chewing gum.

Three weeks ago, the Teen Titans called me to see if I’d like to move into the tower.

I told them if they really needed me, then I’d hop onto the nearest flight to San Francisco or New York or wherever. I’m on their reserve list and they should know it. When there’s trouble, they know who to call. 

But at the end of the day, my answer was no. 

Sometimes I wonder why the Titans even bother. 

The Teen Titans have a human-kryptonian hybrid, a speedster that can break the laws of physics with a single step, an actual demigoddess, the world’s second greatest detective, and Rose Wilson.

What am I to them? I’m just a squishy human who uses a bendy stick to launch smaller, non-bendy sticks into the air with various goodies attached to the tip. 

I wonder what someone would think if they saw me now. What would the Teen Titans think if they knew that Speedy just visited a doctor because she fucked up and got a chemical burn on her left wrist?

I didn’t even burn myself in a cool, super badass heroic kind of way. Wanna know how? 

I bumped into a wall while holding an acid arrow, then the damn nock then exploded and spattered the stuff onto my arm. 

I don’t really believe in karma, but maybe I had this coming. Maybe the universe just had to find a way to remind me that I should stop holding arrows between my teeth.  I probably would not have gotten burnt if I didn’t have an oral fixation going on. 

I’m lucky the one burn is the only worrying injury I’ve gotten since I moved here. I’ve had a lot worse before. It certainly hurts less than a bullet to the stomach or that one time Dinah kicked me in the neck (by accident, don’t worry.) 

One part of superhero life no one ever tells you about is the lies you’ll come up with when explaining your injuries. I used to tell people that I was into mountain biking, which would justify any cuts and scrapes seen during the day. I’d throw kickboxing into the mix as well, since it usually helps explain the bruised knuckles as well.

I really had to pull it out of my ass today. I figured the doctors wouldn’t believe me that I got a chemical burn by rock climbing, even if it was very very very extreme rock climbing. 

I managed to write off the burn by waxing lyrical about household cleaning detergents. I think the doc just bought my story so I would shut up and he could treat the wound. 

When I leave the clinic, I keep the hood of my raincoat over my head. I’ve started wearing a lot of raincoats since I got here. 

Anyway, the doc told me to avoid toilet bowl cleansers for the time being. Guess I gotta take his word.

Good thing he didn’t say anything about abstaining from nightly patrol, then I’d have a real problem on my hands.

Seattle’s weather surprises me for once. It’s sprinkling outside, something a lot lighter than a million harsh, pounding raindrops. 

The mist makes me wonder if the weather will persist until nightfall. I mean, I wouldn’t mind a little less rain. 

But with my luck though, it’ll be a torrential downpour by nine o’clock, but a girl can dream, right?

I stop by a pharmacy to grab some ointment and painkillers, both on the doc’s orders. I know what to take and what won’t mess with my usual meds. 

Between both though, I hope it won’t get to the point where I’m chomping on down on pills as if they were M&Ms. 

When I’m outside with a little pharmacy paper bag in my hand, I head to a bus stop and board a bus that I know will take me home. 

I’ve been hiding out in a loft nowadays. I’m not gonna lie, it was a real fixer-upper what I got to it. I don’t think any living being had stepped into it before I came by. 

Oliver said he built it as a safehouse just in case his work ever brought him to the Pacific Northwest again. 

Suffice to say, the old man stuck around Star City most of the time, and it was up to his plucky, not-so-teenage-anymore sidekick to make it liveable. 

I at least fixed the plumbing and electrical systems. Everything else, I just covered with carpeting or decorations until things started to feel remotely cozy. 

Y’know, despite the whole  _ “protecting-a-city-on-my-own” _ thing being an absolute handful, I like to believe that I’m doing fine by myself. 

Sure, I’m somewhat in over my head, I’m scuffed up to varying degrees, and I’ll probably be popping pills like a sex-starved suburban housewife soon. But aside from all that, I’m okay. 

No one ever says that entering adulthood is easy. Everyone’s experience is individualistic to them. 

Other people my age are going to college, getting married, getting pregnant, or inventing apps that tell you what kind of doughnut you are. 

But me? I’m playing Robin Hood in the rainfall capital of America and I got a chemical burn on my wrist because I’m nineteen years old and can’t get over some stupid oral fixation. 

The bus drops me off at Pioneer Square in a few minutes. My place is only a short walk away. 

I’m not really sure what I’ll do once I get back to the loft. Sometimes I feel like I have a thousand things to do whenever I’m out pretending to be a civilian. Then once I’m back inside and some spare time before nightfall, I can’t find the motivation to do anything. 

I’ve been told that there will be a point in your life where you feel like everything just stops, then you just kinda meander around in the pursuit of something to do.

Maybe I should consider the nothingness a gift. Nothing in my world ever truly stops. I feel like I know that more now than ever.

I should probably practice shooting more. Not to say that I’ve gotten soft, but the learning curve of a compound bow vs. recurve is still getting into a few of my shots. I’ve been knocked down a peg ever since I made the switch. 

Ollie was wicked prepared when designing the loft. There’s an elevator that leads from the place to the basement. He set up a shooting range down there, complete with targets and all that jazz. It’s quite incredible what you can do when you own the whole building. 

It’s all the more shame that he never got around to actually using this place. 

I could also work on redesigning my uniform a bit more. I gotta make something that’ll stop getting waterlogged in the rain. And I gotta axe the cape too, it’s done nothing but get in the way ever since I got here. 

I get to my apartment building and head inside. It’s only a short elevator ride up. 

The fact that I know my apartment will be empty just reminds me even more that I’m a grown adult. 

Or at least, I’m supposed to be. This adult-ing thing tends to toe the line between being  _ “manageable” _ and being  _ “terrifying beyond measure” _ on a daily basis. 

Today, I’m dealing with a damn chemical burn. Tomorrow? Well, who knows? 

Maybe I’ll witness the apocalypse, or maybe I’ll deal with the consequences of not having renter’s insurance.

No one can tell what my future holds. 

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Mia was really under-utilized as a Teen Titan. You'd think that the successor to a founding member would have more say on the team, but no, she only appeared in like, 10 issues at most. 
> 
> That aside, I do have a long winding headcanon that she eventually becomes a full-time member again. She does that "semi-graduate from Teen Titan to Titan" thing that a lot of the adult Titans have done and just goes from there.


End file.
